Detailed Operation Briefing

Ed Fluegel appeared to have recovered from his stomach ailment by morning, although he did not eat breakfast with the other civilian code-talkers. The whole operations team - the four code-talkers, along with CIA staff, DEA staff, and the military contingent - assembled for a briefing on the strike site and the first details about what sort of resistance could be expected.

Case Agent Jesus Tamayo (no longer in U.S. intelligence organization employ) first briefed the code-talkers about the compound, revealing details about the scope of the operation and its objective. The briefing suffered from Tamayo's difficulty expressing himself in English. Additionally, the Pentium desktop computer, a special model made for the U.S. military on contract by Toshiba, malfunctioned. The computer failure, which was likely due to the heat, left a portion of the Microsoft Powerpoint presentation, which had been stored on a separate hard drive, inaccessible. Several digital maps of the area could not be displayed as a result.

Recovered fragments from PowerPoint presentation

Jesus Tamayo: Okay guys I'm gonna talk a little bit and then Mister Fortan and the Lieutenant Colonel are gonna take over. Let me get my presentation fired up here... Love this thing... Okay. See these bullets here: Speed. Accuracy. Control. That's what we need for this here. We gotta armed and dangerous man who maybe murdered an agent, and we wanna move quick ... Okay ... See I've got some clip art here of a gangster, that's what we're dealing with ... It's supposed to be playing danger music now, but ... Okay, I'll get on to the next one. It's ... one more slide ... We're gonna have ... Mister Fortan will tell you who gonna do what. And you [indicates Hope Hearst] are gonna be back here listening to the others on the radio, translating for the boys here. We gonna get onto the map of the compound but I wanna tell you about the setup, okay? Now, here's the compound, this slide has the photo and we get to the map in a moment ... We think they maybe have two attack dogs. The fence is mostly stone but parts are chain link, that's gonna be critical. We have everyone around and ready to move in when the shit goes down so no worries here. This Humbaba guy's crazy - he's like some kind of bloodthirsty jungle shark. Sure, his guys got guns all around, but they aren't suspecting nothing and ... no more than a dozen guards ever. They have automatic rifles but we're gonna be quick. No mess ... The rebels are supposed to offer Humbaba protection. If they do, there could be some gunfire, but we think they won't do that. Let me click to the map ... wait, what is that box? The thing is crashing.

The next several minutes of Jesus Tamayo's presentation, through an unidentified computer error, also likely due to overheating, was recorded backward and are unintelligible. Gus Fortan's presentation, however, was properly recorded.

Gus Fortan: Humbaba's compound is located in a pass between two mountains. There is only one road that leads to it, a road that follows the edge of one of the mountains and is in full view of the compound for more than a mile, making it impossible to approach unseen. The compound has a helipad, and a radar facility capable of detecting incoming aircraft. The observation chopper will be using very sophisticated countermeasures but its presence could lead to detection. The compound is also equipped with an elaborate network of radio antennae, all feeding their signals into a powerful computer capable of monitoring, descrambling, and sorting transmissions on all frequencies, and also of controlling directional antenna to triangulate the source of any transmission. This is an important point - once you use your radio you can assume that your exact position is known. Hopefully, you will not be targeted. But remember to use the radio as little as possible - no unnecessary broadcasting. Humbaba and two of his top men are cryptography experts, so it is assumed that all radio traffic is insecure. Thus our need to resort to the rather unconventional code means we are using, uh, with civilian code-talkers. The compound is surrounded by a high wall, parts of which are very strong steel-reinforced brick with broken glass embedded in the mortar and along the top. Apparently due to a, uh, fluctuation in Humbaba's fence budget, there are two hundred-foot sections that are merely razor-wire-topped chain link. One of these sections is where code-talker Springsteen will be positioned before we move forward with the raid. Springsteen and the agent assigned to him will hike in first and find a position where they can observe the interior of the compound through one of the unfinished segments of fence and serve as eyes for the incoming troops. First we are sending in a Mercedes Benz. The Benz will be carrying the undercover team and one of Humbaba's men, who was captured and questioned by us last week, who has agreed to try to arrange for a quote unquote meeting. The undercover team, and that includes you, Fluegel, will not have to do anything more than look like drug dealers - the purpose is only to deceive them enough that they open the gate. Once the gate is open, at a signal from Fluegel, we bring in the troops and shut them down. Fluegel, you're going in as a chemist, by the way.

Ed Fluegel: That's crazy. I can't do that. I don't know cocaine from sugar.

GF: Don't worry. You'll just sit there in the car. You'll be wearing a white silk suit, pink sunglasses, and lots of fake gold, including an imitation rolex.

EF: I don't want to go in there.

GF: It's a little closer to the action than we wanted to put you civilians, but the DEA backed out and this is our new plan. The car is bulletproof and you'll just stay put. If everything goes well, there won't be any shooting. When they see American troops, we think they'll surrender pretty quietly. So, once again, Springsteen hikes in, gives the word, then we send the Benz. The car pulls up, Humbaba's man, riding in the Benz with the undercover team, asks for them to let us in. When they open the gate, we move in, secure the gate, and Fluegel calls for the Humvee. The assault will happen after the signal from inside. We are going to be moving quickly. The deal going on inside will have everyone looking the wrong way, we will be delivering diversionary non-lethal ordnance, and so it should take very little time to bring the compound completely under our control. Once the gate is secured, code-talker Springsteen, who will be positioned outside the chain-link fence adjacent to the gate at this point, will enter with two armed agents. The agent accompanying Springsteen will be joined by a second agent once inside the gate. If there's shooting, Springsteen goes into the Benz with Fluegel. If they surrender as we've planned, then all code-talkers will spread out with their accompanying agents to secure and report back from the corners of the compound.
Now, here's the important part. You code-talkers will say, in Akkadian, what the agent assigned to you speaks to you. Nothing else. Every transmission we make is to Humbaba's advantage.

The code-talkers were seen to stare at one another and shake their heads. After this session, they returned to the barracks, but passed the rest of the evening in silence.

Ed Fluegel's stomach ailment manifested itself again that evening, and Gus Fortan decided that he should be flown to the nearest medical examiner in the employ of CIA.